By Carrie Purcell1, Fiona Bloomer2, Lesley Hoggart3, Karen Maxwell1, Sam Rowlands4 The COVID-19 pandemic, and current ‘lockdown’ situation in the UK, have seen unprecedentedly fast-paced reorganisation of healthcare services, with many exploring the potential offered by telemedicine. Until this week, abortion care seemed to be an exception to this, with women still being legally required […]
Category: abortion
Covid-19 and Abortion Update: Approval Order for England Made
This evening the Department of Health and Social Care issued an approval order enabling women in England to have early medical abortions at home during the Covid-19 crisis. The provisions affect women seeking abortions before 10 weeks, allowing them to take both pills for early medical abortion at home. The approval also allows doctors to […]
Abortion and Covid-19: MPs should beware anti-abortion letters
Nathan Hodson, Elizabeth Chloe Romanis and Jordan Parsons Debate continues this week over whether abortion regulations in Great Britain should be adapted to ensure access for women during the Covid-19 crisis and resulting widespread self-isolation. We have reviewed an email circulated by anti-abortion activists immediately after laws were briefly relaxed (and the changes were revoked […]
COVID-19 and Abortion Care Update: Department of Health and Social Care “Error”
Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, Jordan Parsons, and Nathan Hodson In an unprecedented move, yesterday the Department of Health and Social Care liberalised restrictions on abortion care in England only to revoke that decision hours later. This returned the legal position for abortion provision back to that stated in the approval order of the Secretary of State […]
COVID-19 and abortion care: why we need remote access to reproductive health services
by Elizabeth Chloe Romanis and Jordan Parsons At the end of 2018 the Department of Health announced that in England, following measures implemented earlier in Scotland and Wales, it would become legal for pregnant women to take misoprostol, the second of the two abortion pills at home. Before this, women were required to attend an […]
Rare but there: exploring utilization of second-trimester abortion in Mexico
By Blair Darney and Lily Alexander Women in Mexico City have had access to free and legal first-trimester abortion since 2007. During this time the Interrupcion Legal de Embarazo (ILE) program has provided abortion services to over 214,000 women. [PARA LEER EN ESPANOL] However, Mexico City is an exception. In the other 31 states of […]
An Interview with Linda Pepper
Linda Pepper is the new patient editor at BMJ SRH. She has been a lay member of RCOG Women’s Network (WN) for 6 years, represented the WN on the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health council and is a lay examiner and assessor for RCOG membership exams. She has dedicated her career to NHS patient […]
An Interview with Oskari Heikinheimo
Oskari Heikinheimo is professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Helsinki. He is also a new associate editor on the board of BMJ SRH. Kate Womersley, BMJ SRH’s social media editor, caught up with Heikinheimo to hear about the political attitudes around abortion and contraception in Finland, conscientious objection and exciting research underway in the field. […]
An Interview with Dr. Abigail Aiken – Part 3
Abigail Aiken trained in clinical medicine at the University of Cambridge, before completing an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, a PhD in public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, and a post-doc at the Office of Population Research at Princeton. She is now assistant professor at the LBJ School of Public […]
An Interview with Dr. Abigail Aiken – Part 2
Abigail Aiken trained in clinical medicine at the University of Cambridge, before completing an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, a PhD in public policy at the University of Texas at Austin, and a post-doc at the Office of Population Research at Princeton. She is now assistant professor at the LBJ School of Public […]